This invention relates to the spectrometry field, and specifically to spectrometers which incorporate interferometers. Its purpose is to provide a spectrometer arrangement which utilizes important developments in manufacturing techniques to simplify spectrometer fabrication and eliminate parts, while maintaining a high level of spectrometer performance.
The spectrometer systems heretofore supplied for laboratory and manufacturing environments have generally used thick aluminum base plates, which are drilled to provide mounting holes for the mirror mounts. The mirror mounts are complex assemblies, using springs, screws, and the like, to permit adjustment of the mirror positions. The overall costs of parts fabrication, assembling, and adjusting tend to result in relatively expensive structures.
One of the aspects of interferometer spectrometer systems which has not been fully utilized in structural design is the difference in accuracy requirements between the interferometer portion of the spectrometer system, and the remaining portions of the spectrometer system. Within the interferometer the precision required is orders of magnitude greater than that required in the portions of the spectrometer external to the interferometer. This, in part, is the basis for the present bold restructuring of the spectrometer.
A pervasive defficiency in the designing of interferometer spectrometer systems has been the failure to perceive the relevance and usefulness of modern manufacturing techniques, particularly those emanating from the revolutionary results of computer numerical control systems, in such fields as precision stamping of metal support members, and precision forming of curved mirror surfaces.